Responsibilities of companies are never over with employment creation. Their activities impact and consequences need to be considered. Companies are re-thinking this subject and my action has been alongside these large companies. They have to follow the sustainability agenda, as their impact is huge. And we can see that, it’s easier and it flows smoothly when companies have this purpose since their establishment – the impact is genuine. I’ve already considered working with government on social issues, but as I have always worked in the corporate environment, today, my tool is the company. Therefore, I try to use this tool to help the world. I believe I have left some teachings in the companies I’ve been through. What I am most proud of is meeting people who don’t know me, but who know the work I’ve done. Recently, I met young engineers from ThyssenKrupp who made a project on a renewable energy driven elevator. I started that project, and I’m glad it continued after I left. Leaving such sustainability culture in the companies is the legacy I would like to see.

At 30, Camila Luconi Viana has been around a lot. She was born in Porto Alegre, but has already lived in Estância Velha and São Leopoldo, and in metropolitan cities in Spain, Chile, Canada and France. “I lived in eight different places in less than three years, so I had to leave everything behind several times – all my stuff, my school, my friends. Today, resilience is one of my characteristics – which is good, because a sustainability professional needs being resilient. We hear a lot of “no’s”. And it’s not just from time to time, it’s almost always: “no”. Victories, when they come, are small, but we cannot give up,” she says. Camila was a panelist at the Virada Sustentável Festival in Porto Alegre, which took place between April 6 th and 8 th.

Graduated in Administration with emphasis on Management and Leadership Innovation from Vale do Rio dos Sinos University (Unisinos), Camila loves studying and has always invested on her educational formation. In addition to this Baccalaureate, she holds a Master of Management and Business from the same institution and a Master of Management from Universitè de Poitiers, in France. Camila also has two Masters in Business Administration (MBA) by Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV), and started a specialization course in Cooperativism at Unisinos, as she works on the Cooperative Credit System (Sicredi) today.

“I started in financing and I realized that wasn’t in my heart. That field of study did not catch my eyes. I’ve always valued great causes. Moreover, as time passed by, I realized I could add administration, which I had studied before, along with something that would make a difference, which would cause a positive impact in the world, whether it be environmental or social impact. At that time, along with my work at ThyssenKrupp, I did some volunteering in several projects until we could prove we needed to create a department, within the company, dedicated to this issue. And we created that department”, Camila, who worked for four years in this project, says.

I left ThyssenKrupp with the feeling of mission accomplished. “At the moment you choose to be a sustainability professional, you feel like impacting. At ThyssenKrupp, I realized I had made it! So, I moved to another organization where I could learn more about sustainability applied to financing, which would be a bit more diverse”, she explains.

To her, o cooperativism is having a very diverse essence because it is present where few people go. “[Sicredi] is in several cities where no other bank wanted to be, for example. It is born in a world where economic and social pillars do not exist without the other. I started at Sicredi trying to input the concept of sustainability, as it puts people in the center. In sustainability, the company works as a means to generate quality of life to people and communities. Its purpose is more economical than profitable”, she affirms. To Camila, environment management is also good for the company, as it helps reducing costs, besides other benefits. “I’m amazed when you establish a win-win relationship [between the company, the people and the environment]”, she says.

Aware to gender issues, Camila knows that the ratio between men and women in the same job positions still is not the same, whether in Rio Grande do Sul or all over Brazil. However, there are important benefits in adoptions and accomplishments of goals and internal policies by the companies. “I always say that if they let me create policies within a company, one of the first things I would do is to allow paternity leave to men. We have to show there is no problem in hiring women, it’s the opposite, there are benefits not only in what she brings, but also in the experiences she had, which are different. Giving room to an additional view of the world brings advantages to companies, and these go further”, Camila comments.

“I usually hear, from the people I’ve already worked with, that I was born the wrong time because I dream with quicker and deeper changes as compared to those we are seeing”, she affirms. “I have been working with sustainability for almost 10 years and I can say it has been worse – nowadays, way more people talk about the subject. According to the way I dream, it should be even quicker. It’s like spinning a slow and huge wheel – but it’s improving.”

Content published in April 10, 2018